'81 380sl-Q's on major repair

[Buttercup]

Hi, I am a newbie here and the proud owner of a '81 380 roadster, with 177,000 mi on it.
I grew up as a passenger in this beauty as a teenager when it belonged to my folks, was bought at WI Simonson in SM, brand new- so anyway it's a basically been in the same family, here on the West Coast since new back in '81. My older bro had it for a few expensive years and I bought it off him. (nice, huh?-another story) I have taken the best care I can of it- have had it maintained as much as possible. It has NEVER broken down-as they say, it has been very faithful. I am by no means wealthy but for a gal I am rather well acquainted with taking care of older cars ..but I'm at a real turning point...

Wouldn't start- brought it in to my guy, he says the "timing chain rail broke"
(- yes it has a double row timing chain)long story short: that translates to 4 bent valves, drivers side cylinder head broke off...it goes on and on -its major labor, major parts and boils down to $3500.00. Yikes!!!! Obviously I'm super attached to this car and would love to keep it for my kids some day but it is a serious gas guzzler and now this, any words of wisdom from all you SL folks out there appreciated. Many thanks, this is a great forum, sorry to ramble, but I wanted to throw out a little backstory 4 ya'll. Thanks
PS- Buttercup is the name of my car-sh'es yellow

[ctaylor738]

I can tell you from my experience that these cars consume money at a ferocious rate as the mileage gets up to where yours is. Economically, it is probably better to try to get $1300-1500 for the car as is, than to put $3500 into what will be a $3500 car when you're done.

You might look into a used engine. There are plenty around, and can be found for $1500 and under, and another $1000 or so to get it installed. But whether that is better than fixing yours is a crapshoot.

Good luck.

You didn't mention the condition of the rest of the car. With all due respect to Chuck, if it is in nice shape other than the motor, I would suggest it is worth a fair bit more than $3,500 once repaired. More like $8500 minimum that nice drivers are going for on the East Coast.

P.S. Almost all cars with high miles consume large $$, but so do the payments on new ones, not to mention brutal depreciation!! If you enjoy owning/driving "Buttercup", fix'er up and be happy.

[ctaylor738]

There is just no way to get that kind of money for a 177K mile car. There are plenty of cars with half the mileage or less in the $8500 range. The 107's really fall off in price as the miles go up. Great for buyers if you can find a good one, but tough on sellers like Buttercup's owner.

[Buttercup]

Hey guys, thanks very much for your input...well I've got my mechanic "on ice" for the time being and have been leaning toward going through with the repair however:

I JUST located the BB value which is BAD NEWS for me if I decide to turn around and unload her down the line...$2462 in "clean" condition, $2225 in average, she's somewhere inbetween I'd say AFTer the repairs.
I did ask my mechanic to check on any other potential probs,...the only thing he can see is a hairline crack in the subframe, which is apparently possibly a warranty issue and he is willing to go to bat w/ the dealer on it and weld it if they won't cover replacing it. Ugh, l'm at a real crossroads here...oh and to answer the Q earlier, other things about the car: 2nd Brwn Ragtop needs new plastic, yellow hard top ok,AC does not work, original yellow paint, all reciepts going WAY back and all books that came w/ it, a few digs on rubber bumpers one dimple in body, but i think she's just as beautiful as when new.

Question now is how does a gal like me go about selling her as is? Maybe someone out here is interested? Or do I go forward and hang on to her until the bitter end.....

Any more thoughts on the fate of buttercup are appreciated,

Best,

'81 380sl

www.suenote.com

[airedale]

A rebuilt engine is $4500. at http://www.adsitco.com/catalog/productdetail.asp?ID=5607 .
I suppose it would come with a warranty and a dual timing chain.

[ericgr]

As these cars get older, people sell them because they have problems or they know expensive service is on-the-way. If they have a good one, they keep it. If they don't, they sell it at these lower prices we see kicking around. The blue book is completely off for these cars if they are well maintained and have no bearing on market value. A really good example of one of these cars has much more value than a bad one.

The car has sentimental value to you which is important.

Chuck's question about the overall condition of the car otherwise is very relevant. Perhaps your mechanic can provide some input on that. How was the transmission, did it change gears nicely up-and-down? Anything else not right with the car?

$3500 is the right price for most parts of the country for your work, that number is often quoted. If you live in a very expensive part of the country, it can actually cost close to twice that.

Chuck may be right about selling it. On the other hand, the car has sentimental value and the devil you know (your car) is often worth much more than the devil you don't. The cars that get sold at any mileage normally have their own set of issues (per my previous comments).

If I were you, and you only maintained this car as a part-time driver (not a daily driver), then I'd spend the $3500 and have the car fixed assuming the rest of the car was in excellent operational condition. Chuck is probably right you will not get your money back, but this isn't about getting your money back for this particular car. Similarly for me, I've had my SL for 10 years. Fixing it isn't about getting my money back but instead keeping it for another 10 years. Compared to a new car, it's much cheaper. My investments compared to getting a different lower mileage car is a guess simply because I don't know what I'm buying, but I do know what I have. Nobody is right or wrong on this, it's an individual decision. But it's not at all unusual to, for example, sink $6000 into a car that has a street value of $8000 and will likely have $3000 more of work in the next few years. People will do this and it can be argued on economic and/or personal preference grounds. If your car is in otherwise great shape and you keep the miles low per year (say less than 5000 per year), you probably won't have a whole slew of serious repairs after this work but of course nobody knows for sure with a car of this age.

[Buttercup]

Hey guys,

First off thanks to all for providing me with excellent input, I have learned alot since joining. I am still in the process of gathering info/exhausting all options here....I AM trying to hang on to her, but only if it's not a completely loosing proposition.

More on her condition:
Buttercup is essentially "original owner" since she was my Dad's. She was in excellent care (garaged, good shops) for at least 3/4 of her life here on the Los Angels. My brother had her for a few years and while he sunk alot of $ (almost 10k) into her he was very careless, he never had a top on her and was mostly at the beach. He also didn't establish much of a rapport w/ the shop and in my opinion got ripped off alot.
I have owned her since 2001-don't have a garage, or tons of cash or mechanical knowledge, but I don't drive her that much, (although she is my ONLY car)I check the oil, and I use a car cover. I have put a fewk into her mech maintenance. She needs a facelift cosmetically for sure but I take care in keeping the dash up and maintaining what is ok the best I can with my own two hands. (see earlier posts for other detail on cond,)


Labor: Looks like I have been naive in the labor dept- as this job is very labor intensive, and I now know the $92 and hr my west side guy is asking is way up there....so I am onto to 2nd opinions and labor quotes closer to $65/hr...this makes the job alot more feasible as an option. Also I have learned that I could have prevented this fiasco had I had the timing chain rail guides replaced at the reccomended interval of 60/90k miles? Anyway I had no idea on this "premium" mainteneance issue....maybe if I had a better mechanic this wouldn't have happened? I have been in touch w/ some of the reccomended shops on here...

All this said I have also looked into dropping a new engine but two negatives there are: #1 Where to find a used one I can trust
#2 No one seems to be willing to give me a warranty on the labor of installing a mystery enginee
A new is one $4500 so that's getting into a whole other ball of wax (I guess?)
So if anything I am leaning toward repair mode...at best shop I can find/best price....in the meantime I have upgraded my AAA to premium so I can get her towed around w/in 100 mi for free..

Thanks again for those of you giving me feedback, it's been a tremendous help, I'll keep you "posted " (:

Best,

'81 380sl Roadster
still on the lift